BEIJING?Tshomlee Go and Marie Antoinette Rivero drew dangerous, familiar faces at the taekwondo draw Monday, making for edge-of-seat maiden matches for both fighters at the Beijing Olympics here.

The 27-year-old Go, who fights first on Wednesday, drew Australian Ryan Carneli for his round-of-16 assignment in the -58 kg class while Rivero takes on Croatia?s Sandra Saric in the -67 kg class on Friday at the University of Science and Technology-Beijing Gymnasium.

Carneli is the same fighter from Melbourne whom Go pipped, 5-4, in the quarterfinals of last year?s world Olympic qualifying meet in Manchester, England. It was the only time Go and the 23-year-old Australian had ever met.

Rivero got a return match with Saric, who nipped her in the sudden-death round of their quarterfinal encounter in Manchester to clinch the third and final Olympic slot.

The Filipino later sealed her Beijing berth at the Asian qualifiers in Vietnam last December.

?We got a very good draw (for Go),? national coach Rocky Samson told the Philippine Daily Inquirer at the Athletes? Village Monday afternoon. ?Yung iniiwasan namin, nasa kabilang (The foes we don?t want to meet are in a different) grouping.?

He was referring to reigning world and Olympic champion Chu Mu-yen of Chinese Taipei, Manchester runner-up Levent Tumcat of Germany and Juan Antonio Ramos, the Spaniard who thwarted Go in the quarterfinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Samson, who is being assisted in the team?s Olympic campaign by South Korean coach Kim Hong-sik, was cautious about the fight schedule of the 20-year-old Rivero, however.

?It?s not a bad draw,? he said. ?What is good is when we showed Toni and Tshomlee their fight diagrams (sides of the draw), they were not affected. It?s like, ?OK, thank you!??

Both Go and Rivero need three consecutive wins to reach the finals and assure themselves of at least a silver medal. Under taekwondo?s complicated rules, any fighter who loses to an eventual finalist still gets a chance to vie for the bronze in the repechage stages.

All matches in each weight class, including those in the medal rounds, are fought in one day.

The slight pain on the side of Go?s right foot was gone Monday afternoon when he practiced at the competition venue, said Samson.

The battler from Bicol and Binondo hurt his foot after landing badly on the concrete floor during a workout at the Athletes Village.

Samson did not say it, but he liked Go?s side of the draw more than Rivero?s.

Go enters his 11:45 a.m. fight Wednesday with a psychological edge over the Australian, who reached the finals of the 2006 World Cup in Bangkok in the lighter bantamweight class.

?Sa tingin ko, maganda ang unang laban ni Tshomlee dahil tinalo na niya yung (I think Tshomlee got himself a good first fight because he has beaten the) Australian,? said Samson. ?He was actually in control of their fight then and showed a lot of confidence.?

A victory over Carneli will move Go into another familiar encounter with the winner between Thailand?s Chutchawal Khawlaor and Benin?s M.A. Jean Moloise Ogoudjobi.

The Filipino featherweight both beat Chutchawal and Ogoudjobi on the way to the bronze and Olympic qualification in Manchester. The Thai, though, owns a victory over Go in the Bangkok World Cup.

Rivero, who came a victory shy of the finals in Athens, drew France?s world champion Gwladys Patience Epangue and back-to-back World Cup champion Hwang Kyung-seon in her side of the draw.

?I believe it?s going to be an early battle for medals in Toni?s draw,? said Samson. ?Pag nakalusot ka dito sa dalawa (Epangue and Hwang), siguradong finalist ka na (If you get past these two, you?re sure of making the finals).?

Hwang beat Rivero in the Athens repechage after the Filipino lost the silver-medal match to Greece?s Elisavet Mystakidou.